In 1983 Freddie Spencer, riding for Honda, became the youngest 500cc World Champion ever. Two years later, in belated celebration, Honda released the NS400, a bike claimed to be a road-going replica of Spencer's machine. The result is a fast, small, very light, two-stroke sports bike, beautifully finished with quite outstanding handling and road-holding. It may be 100cc smaller and considerably less powerful than the brutal all-or-nothing factory racer but they genuinely do have enough in common to warrant the Grand Prix replica tag. Like the racer, the NS400 is a liquid-cooled, three cylinder two-stroke of an unusual configuration, a V3.
The outer pair of cylinders are arranged forwards and down with a vertical middle cylinder. It is a light, narrow unit, no wider than a parallel twin. The 90 degree, V3 layout allows the chassis to be kept extremely compact. Mounted in a lightweight aluminium box-section frame, the engine weight is low and carried forward to give a good centre o